Wikipedia Is Down – How am I Supposed to do My Homework?

Jan 18, 2012

Among the sites that have decided to take their services down completely in protest of the U.S. government's proposed "anti-piracy" bills SOPA and PIPA, Wikipediais without doubt the one with the largest mainstream following. Quite a few of its users were obviously surprised by today's complete blackout and are now taking to Twitter to voice their confusion and anger. It's worth noting, though, that the online encyclopedia's users aren't angry and confused about SOPA and PIPA, but about the fact that Wikipedia is "down."

Students are unsurprisingly pretty unhappy that writing their essays has suddenly gotten harder without Wikipedia. Few of them are actually talking about SOPA, though there is a smattering of comments about it here and there. Mostly, though, they are worried about getting their homework done in time.

Here is a little sampling of reactions to Wikipedia's decision to close down for the day: